Better To Sleep
by TheBubbaHotep
Summary: Two years after escaping Savannah, Lee and Clementine find themselves on the road again after running low on supplies. Accompanied by Omid and a pregnant Christa, the four of them set out to find a safe haven before the baby is born but as usual, things never go as planned. A complete retelling of season two!


Winter had begun and it was getting colder with each passing day. The trees were naked and the ground was covered in dead leaves and tree branches. The group of survivors walked along the dirt road, leaves and twigs crunching underneath their feet with each step. Clementine was glued to Lees' side as usual while Omid and Christa dawdled behind arguing about the name of their baby.

"So, how about we finish that conversation we were having last night."

"Omid for the last time we are not naming our son Omid." Christa proclaimed with a smile. "One of you is enough already."

"Well, what do you wanna name him then?" He replied.

"What about….Eben?"

" Hmm….Omid is way better."

"No, it's not it's lazy."

"Well, what about Omid Jr? That's pretty good right?"

"No that's lazy to," said Christa while laughing. "Omid just stop."

Clementine stopped walking and turned to the couple, "What if its a girl?" She asked.

Omid smiled and rubbed her stomach with his hand, "Then we'll just name her Christa Jr."

"We're not naming her that either, I'm already Christa another one would just make things confusing. Just let me choose the names alright?" Christa stated.

Lee chucked. He always looked forward to the daily banter between those two. Scratching his bushy overgrown beard he turned towards them, "You guys have been going at it for almost two hours and still can't think of a name?" Lee looked down at Clementine, her eyes were locked on Christa's overgrown belly. The young girl had been staring at it ever since she asked Lee where babies came from. He gave her the usual half-assed answer adults gave children, told her they were born from the love of two adults. Which was true to some extent. That was a year ago and he was pretty sure she knew the truth now.

"What do you think we should name the baby Clementine?" asked Christa, slowly rubbing her belly, and linking arms with Omid, who was busy talking to Lee.

"Honestly I think Omid Jr is an okay name," said Clementine. "It's better than Christa Jr."

"Thank you, Clem, I'm glad someone agrees with me," Omid replied with a smirk. " Look, Christa, if you don't like Omid Jr we can always go with Omid the second."

"You're an idiot!" Christa said laughing harder.

The group eventually fell quiet as time passed, Lee enjoyed times like this, he was always so focused on surviving and keeping everyone safe, and nearly forgot how to have fun. And who could blame him, two years had passed since he escaped Savannah with Clementine and things had only gotten worse. The dead were multiplying each day and it had gotten harder to trust people.

In his opinion, the only good thing about the end of the world so far was the silence. It was so quiet. His life before all of this was so busy and stressful, however, he still missed the feeling of not having to worry about a walker sneaking upon him while he slept. He also missed his house, job, and hot showers. He could kill for a shower right now. There were also times where Lee found himself wondering whether or not his wife was alive, but he always settled on the fact that it didn't matter. They were here in North Carolina and she was either dead or somewhere surviving like everyone else.

Suddenly the group came to a stop and reached for their weapons. Using his only remaining arm he pushed clementine behind him and called Omid to his side. A small group of walkers blocking their path, Lee took out his meat cleaver and Omid drew his knife. He turned to Omid while pointing at the walkers, "You take the two on the left and I'll take the three on the right."

The two approached the walkers carefully. Lee slammed his cleaver into the head of the first walker splitting it down the middle, the second one lunged at him, but he dodged it with a simple sidestep and swung his cleaver again slicing its head in two. Lee waited for the walker to lunge at him and when it did, he stepped to the side, slammed his foot against the walkers' leg, snapping it like a twig. The walker hit the ground, Lee raised his foot again and stomped on its head crushing it. He looked over at Omid who was pulling his knife free. When the area was clear he waved over to Clementine and Christa who were patiently a couple of feet away.

"Damn we've been on foot for hours and these are the first walkers we've seen in days." Said Omid

"I was expecting to see them eventually," Lee responded while staring at Christa and Clementine. "We can deal with walkers we just need to be worrying about running into other survivors." He reached up and scratched his bushy unkempt beard again. Every time his fingers grazed it the only thing he could think about was shaving.

" How long do you think it'll take for us to reach Virginia?" asked Omid, he wiped off his knife and slid back into its holster.

"Honestly I don't know, but I do know it's gonna take long-ass time if we travel on foot. Another twenty-four hours maybe. Damn I wish we had a car." stated Christa with a grunt.

"Good luck finding a car out here. We're in the middle of fucking nowhere."

"True, but I'd rather be in the middle of nowhere than the city," said Clementine. Joining in on the conversation. "Remember what happened in Savannah."

Omid sighed, he tucked his hands into his pockets and walked beside Christa. "Yeah I know but its the only place I can think of finding a car that works. How the hell are we gonna find a car out here in the middle of the forest?"

She frowned and placed a hand on her belly. " Honestly, riding in a car would be nice but, right now I just want to get somewhere safe before the baby is born."

"Don't worry we will," Omid said. He spoke softly and compassionately. "We still got a couple of months left…I think?" Omid looked at Lee who shrugged his shoulders, causing the Persian man to curse under his breath.

"I'm sure there's something out here," said Lee. "In the meantime, let's keep moving, the sun is gonna set soon and I wanna make sure we find shelter before its night."

"Yeah lets…" she stopped mid-sentence. A powerful feeling of nausea suddenly hit her out the blue. Christa turned to the side and vomited into the grass. Omid rushed to her side and began softly patting her back. Lee and Clementine watched the couple, looking out for any walkers that might be attracted to the noise. A couple of seconds later they looked back at the couple.

"U-um is she okay?" Clementine asked. "Christa isn't sick is she?"

Christa finished vomiting and stood up straight, she looked over at Omid and greeted him with a loving smile. Afterward, she turned her attention to Clementine, "I'm fine Clementine, we should get moving."Omid grabbed her arm before she could walk off and held her in place.

"Christa you need to rest. I don't think it's healthy for you to be walking this long. It could be bad for the baby."

Lee shook his head, " Let's get farther into the woods and then we can rest as long as you want."

"Lee we've been walking for hours we sh-"

"He's right Omid." Christa interrupted. "We should keep moving. If someone shows up we might be at a disadvantage."Omid frowned but shook his head in agreement. He strolled behind Christa watching over closely. Lee walked ahead of the group, it was quiet except for the howling of the wind and the crunching of leaves. In the distance, he spotted a log cabin. It was rundown and covered in overgrown vegetation. The door was nearly hanging off the hinges and all of the windows were broken. Lee slowly approached the cabin door with his pistol raised. With a single push, the cabin door creaked open revealing the inside. He stepped inside the cabin and lowered his gun. The cabin was empty, pictures hung on the cracked walls and the vines from outside had grown right through the wood. The only thing inside of the cabin worth any value was a small bed.

Omid followed closely behind with his rifle in hand, covering lee from the outside while searched the shed. Clementine and Christa stood a couple of feet away, clutching their pistols, waiting for the signal from Lee. An old shriveled up walker slowly stumbled around the corner, gnarling and groaning. Omid raised his rifle in the air, the butt of his gun smashed against the walkers' face knocking it to the ground. He pulled out his knife and stabbed it in the head. Lee came out of the shed and waved over to Christa and Clementine.

"This place is a fucking dump but it is the closest thing we've got to having a roof over our heads," Lee said, stuffing his pistol into his jeans.

"Better than sleeping outside."

"Christa said you liked sleeping outside."

"That only happened once," Omid said smirking. He walked behind Christa as she entered the shed and stopped at the doorway. "You got anything to eat Lee? I'm out of food and Christa is pretty hungry."

"Nah man, I gave whatever I had left to clementine."

"Shit…well thanks anyway. I guess the munchies are a side effect of being pregnant. Christa isn't feeling too well so she's gonna sit down and rest for a minute."

"Alright, In the meantime I'll go find some stuff to start up a fire," Lee replied. Omid nodded and came outside. He grabbed his rifle and sat outside the cabin door. Lee turned to Clementine, "You want to come with me, Clem? Its been a while since we hung out." The young girl nodded and jogged to his side.

* * *

Clementine bawled her hands into fists to keep her fingers from shaking. The cold was getting to her, the jacket she wore when she left Savannah had gotten too small. Luckily Christa was able to find her a hoodie that was actually her size. Sadly it didn't do much to stop the cold. "Lee, it's freezing out here." She grabbed her arms and began to shake even harder, "I hate the winter." Lee took off his bloodstained denim coat and gave it to the young girl. Ignoring the missing left sleeve she wrapped it around her body and kept walking.

"Same, I'm honestly more of a summertime person. Bud and I always hated cold weather but my parents loved the winter."

"How long is going to take for us to reach Virginia? I can barely feel my toes."

Lee sighed, " It'll just take a couple more hours. Twenty-four to thirty at best. Don't worry it won't take long I promise."

"You say that but it feels like we've been walking forever," Clementine stopped and picked up a piece of wood. "I hope we can find somewhere safe to stay." She looked at Lee, "Somewhere better than the motor inn."

Lee placed his hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry we' will and maybe we'll run into more kids around you're age. Doesn't it get lonely being the only kid in the group?" He asked while carrying a pile of wood on his shoulder.

Clementine bent down and picked up another piece of wood."It does but for some reason, I don't feel like a kid anymore."

"That's because you're maturing quickly for your age. Hell, when I was eleven I didn't have to worry about half of the things you're dealing with."

He looked at her and smiled. It was a sad smile filled with empathy, "How did things get so fucked up?"

"Swear," Clementine said smirking.

"Oh, we still doing that?" Lee asked.

"Nope, just trying to lighten the mood." She replied while giggling. Lee reached over and patted her back as the two made their way back to camp.

Night had just settled in when the two made it back to the cabin. It had gotten colder, so cold that Lee could see small clouds of condensation escape his lips with each breath. Omid was still sitting outside and Christa was standing right behind him. Lee dropped the wood on the ground and took off his backpack. Omid and Christa sat across from Clementine who was rummaging through her backpack. The moonlight reflected off Lees' face as he gathered up twigs and leaves for the fire.

"Time to get this fire started," said Lee breaking the silence.

"Hey, Lee catch," Omid announced while tossing his lighter to Lee. Who caught it with ease.

Lee flicked the lighter on, he placed it near the dry leaves and twigs watching as they caught aflame immediately. He sat down beside clementine, his eyes glued on the fire as it crackled in the night air. During times like this, his mind always raced back to the earlier days. Before everything in Macon went to shit. He remembered waking up late for school every day and driving his fathers' pickup truck to work afterward.

He and Bud helping his dad at the pharmacy. His smile dropped at the thought of his brother's rotting corpse, he always wondered whether he could've made it time to save his family. Then he thought about clementine and how she would have died had he not come along. Lee made a promise to keep her safe no matter what, she was all he had left after all.

Clementine looked over at Lees' stump and frowned. She would always try to bring it up with Lee but could never muster up to courage to do so. The thing bothering her the most was that Lee never seemed to blame her for what happened to his arm. He always stated that the incident was just bad luck. Despite his words, she couldn't help but feel that she was to blame.

"Something wrong sweet pea?" He asked adding leaves to the fire.

Clementine stopped staring and blinked, "N-nothing I was just thinking," she replied quickly.

"Thinking about what?" asked Lee. He caught her sneaking a peek at his amputated arm, she tried to open her mouth and ask the question but couldn't put it into words. She took a deep breath, "Does it bother you at all?" Clementine asked looking directly at him.

Lee took his eyes off the fire and looked over at her, "Does what bother me? My arm?" He shifted his gaze towards the stump and gave it a wiggle.

"Nope, It doesn't bother me anymore. I can still feel the lower half of my arm if that makes any sense. It's there but isn't at the same time." He lifted his stump and poked clementine with it, she giggled and pushed it away. "It does make things a little harder but I've gotten used to it."

"I'm sorry about your arm. You'd still have it if it wasn't for me," said Clementine. A tiny sniffle escaped her lips as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"You don't have to apologize Clem. I'd lose the other one if it meant keeping you safe."

"I know, you always say that but, I feel bad every time I look at it," Clementine hunched over and hugged her knees into her chest. "Do you forgive me? I won't stop feeling guilty until you do."

"I forgive you, sweetpea," said Lee embracing her in a hug.

Omid took off his jacket and tried to give it to Christa. She objected but Omid ignored her as usual. He covered her with the cotton jacket and sat down. "Man it's freezing out here." His stomach growled. "And I'm hungry. I swear I could eat a giraffe right now." The three of them looked at him, eyebrows raised in disbelief. "What?" he asked shrugging his shoulders.

"Of all things why a giraffe?" asked Lee.

" I don't know they just look delicious. The meat on their neck is probably the best part."

"Usually I'd say that's disgusting but I'm so hungry that it doesn't even matter," Christa replied in a soft tone. She grunted as she held her head. "I think I'm gonna head to bed. The headache is back." Lee and Clementine watched as Christa pecked Omid on the cheek and entered the cabin.

"I miss pepperoni pizza," said Clementine with a smile.

"I miss pineapple pizza.

Omid gave Lee a distasteful look, " Pineapples on pizza?" He leaned closer to the fire. "You're kidding right?"

"Not at all. My brother and I would buy a pizza after school almost every day."

"Yeah, that's disgusting Lee. Fruit doesn't belong on a pizza man."

Lee shook his head, "So you wouldn't eat pineapple pizza but you'd eat an entire giraffe?."

"Yep, in a heartbeat."

"Even if pineapple pizza was the last thing on earth?"

"I'd rather starve to death. Like I said before fruit doesn't belong on pizza man."

"I don't believe it for a second," replied Lee with a smirk.

"I agree with Omid," Lee turned to Clementine who was still hugging her legs. "Pineapples are already gross by themselves, so why would they be good on a pizza."

"See clementine agrees with me again."

"Whatever, clementine doesn't know what she's missing."

"Trust me clem you aren't missing much," Omid replied smiling at Clementine.

"All of this talk about food is making me hungrier than I already am," said Lee. A loud rumbling sound echoed from his stomach."Omid we should go hunting tomorrow morning maybe we'll get lucky and catch something worth eating." Lee said changing the subject.

"Sounds like a plan. Maybe we'll run into a giraffe." Omid said with a smile earning a laugh from lee and Clementine. The young girl sat quietly watching the exchange between the two adults. She leaned against Lee's shoulder, a smile plastered on her face as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Clementine's eyes cracked open slowly. She laid in the empty bed with Lee's coat thrown over her body like a blanket. The small beam of light shining into the cabin confirmed that night was over. Despite its dirty unkempt appearance the room was peaceful, she definitely wouldn't have minded living here if the cabin was in good shape. Her stomach growled and it was loud.. She pursed her lips and rolled out of bed, Lees coat still wrapped around her body.

The eleven-year-old girl grabbed her backpack off the floor and headed towards the door. She stepped outside the cabin, the sun shined into her eyes and the air felt moister compared to the usually dry winter air. Her shoes sunk into the ground causing the young girl to frown, the entire area outside was muddy and covered in puddles of water. She saw Christa and Omid standing in front of the fire talking to one another while Lee was busy packing his bag.

"Are you sure you have everything?" asked Christa.

"Yes," replied Omid as he slung his rifle over his shoulder.

"Good, please pay attention while you're out there Omid. You need to start being more aware of your surroundings."

"Christa, you worry way too much I'll be fine and besides if anything does happen I got Lee watching my back." He turned to the professor, "Isn't that the right Lee?"

"Damn straight," Lee stated. Smiling, he placed a hand on Omid's' shoulder. "Don't worry I'll bring him back in one piece."

"You better," she replied with a laugh.

They saw Clementine standing outside the cabin, shielding her face from the sun. Lee approached Clementine and the two greeted one another with hugs as usual. Lee reached down and took the baseball cap off her head. He removed the purple bands tied around her pigtails and watched as her kinky brown dropped from its restraints, covering her eyes.

"Looks like it's time for another haircut. It's covering half of your face now."

"And it smells really bad. I wish we had shampoo."

"So do I, sweetpea. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a hair cut either." He let out a snicker and pointed at the overgrown Afro on his head. " I haven't grown my hair out like this since I was a teenager. And it didn't smell bad."

" I don't know, I like the hair it just needs to be washed and combed." She paused and cupped her chin. "I'm not really a big fan of the beard. It makes you look old."

"I'm not a fan of it either but it keeps me warm so I can't complain."

Lee got down on one knee to get a better look at her face, she looked different, more hardened than he remembered. He tied the girl's hair back into pigtails and returned her cap. "I'll cut your hair when I get back so have the scissors ready when I get here." She nodded in response, watching as Lee and Omid walked away until they were fully swallowed by the forest.


End file.
